Legal Protection for Fish?

Kelly Levenda, an attorney for The Animal Legal Defense Fund, a Portland group, says it's time to give them legal protection.

"Even though fish can suffer like other animals, they currently have little legal protection," said Levenda. "Fish are actually excluded from the laws that protect animals."

"Fish are really intelligent animals," she said. They can use tools, they can recognize each other's fish-faces, and some can even recognize human faces." Researchers have observed catfish using a leaf as a baby carriage. "Another example of tool use is a fish that will hit a mollusk against a rock to open it," she said.

There are 30 thousand species of fish, and more than a trillion are harvested for food each year, with many other species dying or injured in large nets. According to Levenda, it's time we humans gave them a voice in their fate.